John Mailander’s Forecast

John Mailander’s Forecast is excited to independently release Let The World In on January 24, 2025, on CD, vinyl, and digitally. Forecast is a Nashville-based collective of visionary musicians led by acclaimed performer, producer, composer, educator, and recording artist John Mailander, known for his voice on the fiddle and other stringed instruments.

Forecast is John Mailander on fiddle, keys, and electronics; Ethan Jodziewicz on upright and fretless electric bass; Chris Lippincott on steel guitars, keys, and electronics; Mark Raudabaugh on drums and percussion, Jake Stargel on acoustic guitar, and David Williford on tenor saxophone and bass clarinet.

Produced by Mailander, Let The World In was recorded by Brook Sutton at The Studio Nashville, assisted by Will Tyson and Maeve Graham. It was mixed by Daniel Rice and mastered by Wayne Pooley. With nine tracks, four of which are shorter free improvs, all but “Road” are original instrumentals.

The songs show a crossover from the jazz side of things and more into the jam band world, especially with the first single—a Nick Drake song, “Road,” which is available to stream and buy now → https://ffm.to/forecast-road-single.

“‘Road’ has been a bit of a mantra to me over the past couple of years,” says Mailander. “I haven’t always considered myself much of a singer, but it felt important for me to sing this one myself on the album. Lyrically, I feel like it ties into the themes of the album as a whole, and it’s a great vehicle for jamming as a band. This track captures a lot of the vibe of what we do live.”

The song was described as “majestic and expansive” by JamBase, who debuted the Grouch Bucket-animated video that accompanied it. In their feature, they went into deeper detail with John about “Road” and the entire album.

John tells JamBase, “I try to compose tunes with colors inspired by the disparate styles of music we all love, which we then can collectively explore as a unit and through our individual lenses,” Mailander added. “Part of the sound of this band to me is this unique point where all of our different backgrounds, and our collective limitations, together meet these other colors and genres we’re striving to dig into—That meeting point is where a lot of the magic and individuality is revealed.”

Let The World In is the spiritual third in a trilogy of “Forecast” records and the second “true” album as a band since 2021’s Look Closer, which was recorded during the pandemic. Originally assembled for the live debut of John’s 2019 album Forecast, the group adopted the name for a series of residency shows in Nashville at Dee’s Lounge. John Mailander’s Forecast has since developed a dedicated following through their adventurous improvisations, singular collaborations, and genre-bending, exuberant musical explorations.

Blending melancholy and darkness with hope and joy, Mailander says, “This album is absolutely connected to larger themes to me, both in my personal life the past couple of years and in the greater world. All of the stress and noise politically, the overwhelmingness of re-entering life coming out of shutdown times, and the search for inner peace through it all. The music is the explanation of all of this; I’d like the album to remain open to personal interpretations of what that entails. It’s the heaviest record I’ve made sound-design-wise, and I hope for it to flow together as one continuous listening experience that blends rock, jazz, psychedelic, and Americana flavors.”

The album opens with 18 seconds of the band candidly gathering to warm up, culminating in the count-off to “Let The World In.” The title track is a Forecast sound collage in which Mailander explores on fiddle and Wurlitzer, and the ambiance is enhanced further with the addition of the “Let The World In Sound Freedom Expressionists” (Hannah Delynn, Maya De Vitry, Gibb Droll, Ella Korth, Lindsay Lou, and Royal Masat).

Other compositions include the bluesy, whimsical, and mysterious “Gardener,” the string-layered “Chapters,” and the peaceful Metheny/Hornsby-inspired “Heartland,” which showcases Stargel’s imaginative guitar solo along with a Jodziewicz arco bass feature and Mailander’s piano playing.

(improvisations 1)” and “(2)” are short pieces that were spontaneously composed by Forecast during the end of their daily recording sessions. “(reprise),” bookends the album with a reinterpretation of the title track’s cinematic main melody, with Mailander again on piano. Let The World In is meant to be played as a whole listening experience. Play this album loud.

Along with “conducting” the Forecast, Mailander is a member of Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers. His playing can be heard on albums by Billy Strings (including the Grammy-winning album Home), Noah Kahan, Joy Williams, Lucy Dacus, Molly Tuttle, Joe K. Walsh, Chatham County Line, and many more. John is currently on tour with Sam Grisman Project.

John says, “Playing in Bruce’s band over the past seven years has been incredibly inspirational and is a large part of what’s driven me to learn to be a bandleader and share the Forecast project. Although fiddle has always been my primary instrument, I’ve more recently fallen in love with the piano, largely through deeply listening to Bruce night after night. As a compositional tool, the piano has opened up a lot of new avenues for me—most of the songs on this album were initially composed at home on the piano.”

John started playing at ten years old in San Diego in 2001, attended college at Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2009-13, and has been a touring musician since around 2012. He released a solo progressive bluegrass album coming out of college in 2014, then moved to Nashville in 2015. He started working on the debut Forecast record in 2017 with new Nashville friends “as a way to explore a new instrumentation and compositional themes that had always called to me in some ways more than bluegrass (always been inspired by Phish, film scores, Pat Metheny Group, Brian Blade Fellowship, etc.).” He formed the band after the Forecast album release show in 2019, and during the COVID lockdown they recorded Look Closer. This third album in the Forecast series showcases the large vision and wide sound-design palette of their musical explorations.

Let The World In is meant to be played as a whole listening experience. With nine tracks, four of which are shorter free improvs, all but “Road” are original instrumentals. Produced by Mailander, Let The World In was recorded by Brook Sutton at The Studio Nashville, assisted by Will Tyson and Maeve Graham. It was mixed by Daniel Rice and mastered by Wayne Pooley. Recorded February 11-14, 2024. Play this album loud.

John Mailander Forecast’s Let The World In will be released January 24, 2025.

Forecast is a Nine Athens Music project.

Pre-order Let The World In on Bandcamphttps://johnmailander.bandcamp.com/album/let-the-world-in.

Pre-save Let The World Inhttps://ffm.to/lettheworldin.

Stream/Buy/Watch “Road” https://ffm.to/forecast-road-single.

For more information and updates, please visit www.johnmailander.com, www.facebook.com/johnmailandermusic, www.instagram.com/johnmailander.

John Mailander

Photo by
Michael Weintrob

Artist Update

John Mailander’s Forecast ~ Let The World In
Available January 24, 2025 on CD, Vinyl, and Digitally

Led and “Conducted” by Fiddler/Multi-Instrumentalist John Mailander

Forecast is a Risk-taking Improvisational Ensemble of Some of Nashville’s Great Instrumentalists 

“Adventurous and captivating.” —No Depression

“This kind of music is good for our expanding music scene, and good for you.” —The Nashville Scene

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